It’s just gotten very hot in New York. Around here, when the summer heat hits, things start to get crazy. But maybe not quite as crazy as FOX News wondering if a perfectly moment of respect-knuckling between Barack and Michelle Obama might be a “terrorist fist jab,” complete with ominous chords. It’s not clear exactly what source FOX’s E.D. Hill is relying on — or if she even has one at all — when she talks about how “everyone interprets this gesture differently” and includes “terrorist fist-jab” among the possibilities. I kind of suspect she just made it up to scare the people in this country who have somehow never seen two people touch fists as a sign of respect, celebration, greeting, or just as an alternative to a high-five. I mean, as Melissa points out, even Pat Buchanan has been on TV doing a fist-bump.

My other guess? FOX News has a quota system for its anchors where they have to concoct at least a certain number of rabid attack-journalist comments about the target of the week, and sometimes the well runs a little dry. Sometimes they have to make phrases up, and the “terrorist fist jab” is born.

On the other hand, maybe some random Freeper gave birth to this interpretation in a fit of lunacy; do let me know if any of you trace it back, because I’d like to know what they thought of Obama’s earlier shoulder-brushing. Does it mean “I’m going to eradicate the white people in this country just like these little flakes of dandruff?” Or maybe it’s a dogwhistle for the homosexual agenda. I’m sure there are all sorts of interpretations, and what is the media’s job if not to give voice to the total insanity of the far right and make it sound quasi-reasonable, fair and balanced?

It’s going to be a long election year summer.

In other horribly stupid news, some bouncers in Beverly Hills decided to throw a woman out of a bathroom and call her “it” because they thought she looked too masculine. It’s the trials of Khadijah Farmer all over again, and a month earlier this year. This time around, perhaps related to the fact that Tanya White is a fairly well-connected songwriter in Hollywood, she’s being represented by celebrity-lawyer Gloria Allred. Interestingly, Allred and White are only asking the hotel for an apology and a policy revision… but I wonder how many times that will have to happen, in how many hotels and restaurants across the country, before gender non-conforming folks can pee without being harassed?

It’s also worth noting that White and Farmer are both female-identified and female-assigned, and therefore have a very good case against the establishment’s notions of gender. Not everyone can rely on assigned sex, legal sex, or photo ID to back them up in situations like these. But that doesn’t change the fact that everyone has the right, and the bodily need, to access a bathroom in safety and peace when they have to go.

27 Responses

I look at M and B’s gesture as a private, little victory salute of all the shit they’ve gotten through lately. They have actually made it through this far without him being assassinated – which was a big scare for both him and her. And me as a non-god-fearing person, I will still think deep thoughts every night for OB not to be killed, for him and his family to make it through to the election and beyond. I’m not totally enamoured with his policies, not was I enamoured with Hillary’s, but any candidate that can re-orient the Supreme Court to maintain Roe, and claw back Constitutional rights shredded by Bush/Cheney is okay in my book just now. I hate having so many of my hopes suspended, but at this point Obama’s sweeter than McCain by a great long shot.

What the FUCK? That seems particularly amusing/ridiculous/vindicating after discussions of whether the fist bump was a “black” gesture or not… Obviously it’s too black for some people! *hits head against wall*

If this is the kind of shit we have to look forward to from the media all summer, I may just find a nice dark cave somewhere and hide until November. I’m pretty sure that “terrorist fist-jab” is the dumbest bit of ‘analysis’ I’ve heard in the election coverage yet. Not to mention it being a pretty clear bit of race-baiting ugliness, as Yuri pointed out. Ugh.

(Also, how adorable was the fist bump? SO adorable. It seemed like such an uncalculated moment. I loved it.)

You know, that does make a lot of sense. Because if there’s one thing the Youth like, it’s Black stuff. And everyone knows, if you get TOO BLACK, then you get the Black Panthers, who are basically Youth-Hypnotizing Terrorists. Therefore fist-bumping 2 the extreme = explosion capable of leveling federal office buildings.

I teared up when I saw the fist jab. The look on both of their faces… ah. I lost it.

Ta-Nehisi makes a good point about how the fist jab was an important moment because it was gender-equal — there was no doting wife hugging her husband, no star and back-up singer, no “good job, baby, YOU did it.” It seemed to be two people, as equals, saying, “We did it.” That’s what I saw in it, too — partnership, playfulness, and love

You know, that does make a lot of sense. Because if there’s one thing the Youth like, it’s Black stuff. And everyone knows, if you get TOO BLACK, then you get the Black Panthers, who are basically Youth-Hypnotizing Terrorists.

You got to be kidding, The fist “bump”, .America “WAKE UP”, You are getting your first taste of what it is going to be like electing Barack HUSSEIN Obama for president. Next you are going to see southern fried chicken, black-eyed peas, corn bread, and watermelon as your daily meal. Let’s not forget what Obama’s middle name is, funny thing, he never wants to use his middle name on his campaign.

Yeah, special. But that is what freaked people out about the dap — it’s just so black.

I too think Yuri K is right, because how out-of-touch to you have to be to think that terrorists do the fist bump? It’s something you’d expect to hear from someone who’s afraid that little Timmy might be taking “the pot” or something.

i’m going to agree with jill. i thought this photo was an amazing show of love and affection. and it’s just damn cute. FOX is really scrubbing the bottom of the barrel if this is what they can come up with. sad.

Forcing people to conform to gender sterotypes is an infringement on their basic human rights. In some cases this indignity can lead to physical harm. FOr instance in Iran gay people are encouraged to have sex- reassignment surgery. I posted about this and the link between gender identity and sexuality. In some cases it can be economic discipline. Like the recent case of a woman who lost her job because she shaved her head for charity, in Ontario.. THe desire to maintain gender roles helps to maintain the gender hierarchy that exists globally. It is in no way neutral. People who refuse to perform their gender are attacked simply because they are viewed as a threat to patriarchy.

Re: gender non-conforming
Last summer I was biking across the US with a group of people and in one of the small towns we stopped in (can’t remember the name of it right now) we went to a public pool to take showers. Naturally there were a lot of younger children running around and one of them when she saw me started shouting “There’s a boy in here! There’s a boy in here!” It pissed me off not that she misidentified my gender but that evidently her parents/teachers/whoever had so instilled “gender norms” in her that my having short hair was enough for me not to be a women, despite the fact I have D’s and was wearing a bra, and was talking and laughing with my friends in an obviously feminime voice.

That news broadcast was so funny that I almost wet my pants laughing! A terrorist jesture? How low can the news stations sink to scare the American public into submission…yellow journalism- that’s all I have to say. Maybe they should have exposed their stomachs and done the belly-bump like they were tailgating and then people would have understood the message Michelle was conveying.

Ali, I know exactly how you feel. I have short hair (and A’s, not D’s), so I sometimes get dirty looks from adult women if I’m wearing a jacket or something on my way out of a women’s restroom. Sorry, you old biddies, but you DON’T get to decide exactly what a woman is supposed to look like. >:(

[…] the needed number of delegates to become the presumptive nominee, a lot of shit has gone down. The “fist bump” between Michelle and Barack before he began his victory speech was referred to as a “terrorist fist jab.” (For the […]

[…] the needed number of delegates to become the presumptive nominee, a lot of shit has gone down. The “fist bump” between Michelle and Barack before he began his victory speech was referred to as a “terrorist fist jab.” (For the […]